The commissioner last week (June 30) published its long-waited NHS workforce plan, setting out a raft of plans to increase the number of medical professionals across the UK over the next 15 years.

This is in response to “demographic change” that forecasts predict will create a “shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 [NHS] staff by 2036/37” if there is no “concerted and immediate action”, it said.

Read more: ‘A sad day for community pharmacy’: Sector reacts to NHSE workforce plan

But the plan also set out proposals to shift around the existing workforce.

It said that NHSE will work with the doctors’ regulator - the General Medical Council (GMC) - and medical schools to “explore options for a shortened medical degree programme”.

This “would be available for some existing healthcare professions such as pharmacists and paramedics”, it added.

Read more: What does the NHS workforce plan really mean for pharmacy staffing issues?

The document said that Brexit “provides the potential for greater flexibility” with medical training to “recognise prior learning and experience towards attaining a degree”.

This “goes beyond what is currently recognised – one year for graduate entry programmes”, it added.

Read more: Workforce plan: Pharmacist degree apprenticeship under ‘consideration’

Meanwhile, the plan also revealed that NHS decision-makers are giving “consideration…to the potential of a pharmacist degree apprenticeship”.

And it set out an ambition to boost the number of pharmacist training places to 4,307 by 2028, marking a 29% increase from the 3,339 training places available for trainee pharmacists in 2022.

It also revealed plans to “extend the success” of the controversial additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS) that hires pharmacists and other staff into GP practices.